About DPI

Class of students with raised hands.

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) is charged with implementing the state's public school laws for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade public schools at the direction of the State Board of Education and the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The agency provides leadership and service to the 115 local public school districts and 2,500+ district public schools, 200+ charter schools, and the three residential schools for students with hearing and visual impairments. The areas of support include curriculum and instruction, accountability, finance, teacher and administrator preparation and licensing, professional development and school business support and operations.

DPI develops the Standard Course of Study, which describes the subjects and course content that is taught in North Carolina public schools, and the assessments and accountability model used to evaluate student, school, and district success.

DPI administers annual state and federal public school funds totaling approximately $11 billion and licenses the approximately 117,000 teachers and administrators who serve public schools. The agency’s primary offices are in Raleigh, with four regional alternative licensing centers in Concord, Fayetteville, Elm City and Catawba. Approximately 30,000 new teacher and administrator licenses are issued annually from these centers. DPI's work extends to the NC Center for the Advancement of Teaching with locations in Cullowhee and Ocracoke, and the NC Virtual Public School – the second largest virtual public school in the nation. The state agency also works closely with nine Regional Education Service Alliances/ Consortia and six regional accountability offices.

Mission and Requirements

Please see Superintendent Truitt's strategic vision called Operation Polaris.

Leadership

Catherine Truitt, the North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instructionis the elected head of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and oversees the public school systems of the state. The Superintendent is a member of the N.C. Council of State and a member of the N.C. State Board of Education. 

The North Carolina State Board of Education sets policy and general procedures for public school systems across the state, including teacher pay and qualifications, course content, testing requirements, and manages state education funds.

Legal Notices

Tab/Accordion Items

This privacy statement was created in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to our visitors' privacy. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for the sites listed below.

Information Collected and Stored Automatically

When you visit our website to browse, read pages, or download information, we automatically collect and store the following information:

  • Internet domain and IP address from which you access our site
  • Type of browser and operating system used to access our site
  • Date and time you access our site
  • Pages you visit
  • If you came to our site from another website, the address of that site
  • The search engine and search words/phrases used to locate our site (if applicable)

We use this information to help us make our site more useful to visitors, and to learn about the number of visitors to our site and the types of technology our visitors use.

Personal and Demographic Information

In general, you can visit the Public Schools of North Carolina site without providing any personal information. Subscriptions to our email publications require your email address. Other information requested during the subscribing process is optional, and is used to learn more about the visitors using our email news service to better serve them.

Cookies
This site uses cookies on a limited basis to help us provide fresh, individual content to our visitors. Public Schools of North Carolina does not track information collected by cookies during a visit to our website.

External Website Links

Pages on this site provide links to other sites that are not maintained by Public Schools of North Carolina. These links are intended as additional resources for our users. Public Schools of North Carolina is not responsible for contents of any off-site pages or any other sites linked from this site. As a result, this agency cannot guarantee the accuracy, completeness, usefulness, or adequacy of any resources, information, products or process contained in any website linked directly or indirectly to our site. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of non-Public Schools of North Carolina websites. Links to external sites do not constitute endorsement.

Web Site Security

For website security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. These attempts to cause damage could be subject to legal action.

 

This forum is a limited public forum and family-friendly so please keep your comments and posts clean. You participate at your own risk, taking personal responsibility for your comments, username and any information provided.

All posts to and from this site are subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law, which may result in monitoring and disclosure to their parties, including law enforcement.

NCDPI does not endorse posted comments, images, and external hyperlinks by others and they do not necessarily represent the view of the department.

Personal attacks, profanity or racism will not be tolerated and will be deleted and users will be banned. In addition, comments that are repeated or do not relate to the original post will be removed.

Posts will be removed and users may be banned permanently if they violate any of the guidelines listed below:

Do not post graphic, obscene, explicit or racist comments. We also do not allow comments that are abusive, hateful, vindictive or intended to defame anyone or any organization.

Do not post any solicitations (ex: asking users to "like" your Facebook page, visit your website, sign a petition, etc.).

Do not post advertisements, prize contests or giveaways. This includes promotion or endorsement of any financial, commercial or non-governmental agency. Similarly, we do not allow attempts to defame or defraud any financial, commercial or non-governmental agency.

Do not post details about an ongoing investigation or legal or administrative proceeding that could prejudice the processes or could interfere with an individual's rights. These will be deleted from this page.

Do not post student names, grades, academic standing, or detail about a student’s disability or health issues in any social media forum.

Apparent spamming or trolling will be removed and may cause the author(s) to be blocked from the page without notice.

Do not post copyrighted or trademarked images or graphics. The user should own any imagery posted. Images depicting minor children (under age 18) must adhere to the district, school, and/or organization’s photo release policy.

Do not post comments, photos or videos that suggest or encourage illegal activity.

Do not post political propaganda or advertisements.

Do not post documents of any kind.

Any comments not adhering to the above commenting policy are subject to removal and may be banned from future postings.

Neither Public Schools of North Carolina, its employees, nor any other party involved in creating, producing, or delivering the site are liable for the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of the data described and/or contained within this website and shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use.

Data Use

It is the responsibility of the data user to utilize the data appropriately and consistent with these limitations. Data are not legal documents and should not be used as such.

Content

The publications and information contained in this website are dynamic and will change over time. Content and related graphics also are not legal documents and should not be used as such. If you wish to verify any information contained on this site, call the appropriate Public Schools of North Carolina division listed in the Education Directory.

In compliance with federal law, NC Public Schools administers all state-operated educational programs, employment activities and admissions without discrimination because of race, religion, national or ethnic origin, color, age, military service, disability, or gender, except where exemption is appropriate and allowed by law.

Inquiries or complaints regarding discrimination issues should be directed to:

Thomas Tomberlin, Director of Educator Recruitment and Support, NCDPI
6301 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-6301
Phone: (984) 236-2114
Fax: (984) 236-2099

USDA Non-Discrimination Statement
Both English and Spanish Language versions can be found on the Child Nutrition Website.